Trump to hold off on new travel ban in wake of positive speech reviews: report

President Trump will not sign a revised travel ban executive order on Wednesday, CNN reported, despite expectations he would do so.

The decision to hold off comes amid a bout of positive coverage for the president, after a well-received address to Congress on Tuesday night.

A White House official did not explicitly tell CNN that the favorable coverage spurred Trump to delay the signing, but did not deny that it played a role in the matter.

“We want the [executive order] to have its own ‘moment,’ ” CNN quoted the official as saying.

{mosads}The decision to delay the order reportedly came Tuesday night after the president returned to the White House from Capitol Hill.

In his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order temporarily barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., and suspended the country’s refugee resettlement program.

That order immediately faced backlash, with critics calling the action a de facto Muslim bans and a violation of religious freedom guarantees. It was blocked in federal court earlier this month.

The Trump administration was initially expected to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, but ultimately decided to instead pursue a new executive order that could stand legal muster. The president was previously expected to sign that order Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Trump claimed that the travel ban had to be signed immediately because even a week’s notice would have allowed people to “pour in before the toughness goes on.”

Vice President Pence on Wednesday said that the administration is finalizing the new order. 

“They’re putting out the finishing touches on that executive order,” Pence said during an interview on CBS’s “This Morning.” “It should be out in the next few days.”

— This story was updated at 10:08 a.m.